Many households in the United States and throughout the world consume large volumes of beverages such as soft drinks, soda, juices, lemonade, teas, isotonics, fruit drinks and other drinks on a daily basis. For instance, in 1998, retail sales of soft drinks in the United States were approximately fifty-four billion dollars, retail sales of fruit beverages in the United States were approximately seventeen and a half billion dollars and retail sales of isotonics in the United States were approximately two and a quarter billion dollars.
To maintain an adequate supply of such beverages, consumers must continuously supply their homes with various bottled and canned beverages, or must make beverages such as ice tea, lemonade and fruit punches by hand. These tasks can be relatively burdensome for families which experience a large consumption of beverages, in part because the beverage containers are somewhat heavy, the beverage containers occupy substantial space in their refrigerators, and the time to make the beverages can be substantial on a annual basis. Additionally, the cost in dollars and time of purchasing such beverages on an annual basis can be significant as indicated above.
Commercial drink dispensing machines and systems for monitoring such drink dispensing machines are well known. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,237,536, 4,766,548, 4,800,492, 4,827,426, 5,190,083, 5,608,643 and Re. 32,179 disclose commercial drink dispensing apparatuses and monitoring systems for commercial drink dispensing apparatuses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,536 discloses a central console that can be located at a hotel front desk for controlled dispensing of beverages from remotely located reservoirs located in remote locations such as hotel rooms. Upon the request of a hotel guest, a reservoir at a remote location dispenses beverage. The central console monitors each time a beverage is dispensed at each remote location to determine the total amount of beverages dispensed so that the guests can be charged for each drink when checking out of the hotel. The central console also monitors operation of the remote dispensing units to determine information such as when the reservoirs are empty.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,548 discloses a microprocessor controlled system for monitoring and reporting on data related to operation of soft drink vending machines to a remotely located central computer over non-dedicated telephone lines. The system can be used to monitor the operation of commercial drink dispensing systems to determine information such as run or on times (e.g., the run time of a carbonator or the on time of a dispensing valve) and dispensing information (e.g., the type and quantity of product dispensed). The monitored information can be periodically reported to one or more different facilities, such as a customer account, a bottler servicing the account or a regional office.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,492 discloses a microprocessor based data logger for a post-mix beverage dispensing system that determines the number and size of particular drinks sold over pre-selected time intervals based upon the opening and closing of each valve assembly associated with dispensing equipment. The data logger is a metal box externally attached to the dispensing equipment to collect data for days or weeks. The stored data subsequently is loaded onto a portable computer for further processing and interpretation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,426 discloses a soft drink or beverage dispenser that monitors “Smart Valve” output to determine information such as the amount of water and syrup dispensed for a period of time. More specifically, information monitored by the system includes total drinks by size, mixture ratios, total syrup and water volumes, yield per gallon of syrup, syrup viscosity, portion sizes, syrup identification numbers and syrup temperature. Acquired data is transmitted to either a computer on site or over telephone lines to a central location.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,083 discloses a system for dispensing and monitoring output and consumption of fluids including carbonated beverages in outer space. The system includes a computerized monitor that identifies users, tabulates fluid withdrawal and calculates recent consumption over a predefined period of time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,643 discloses a system for managing and remotely monitoring multiple dispensing units via a communications network such as, for example, a cellular radio network, a wide area RF network or a satellite network. The system includes a dispensing unit such as soft drink vending machines with a number of bins, with each bin holding a quantity of a specific product that a consumer can select. Each dispensing bin includes a reference level sensor that determines when the quantity of product falls below a reference level that is higher than an out of stock level. The dispensing unit transmits status information via the communication network when the product level falls below the reference level, to indicate that a particular bin needs to be restocked.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 32,179 discloses a post-mix carbonated beverage dispensing system for use in refrigerated cabinets.
Certain types of non-commercial drink dispensing systems are also well known. For instance, countertop beverage dispensing systems which dispense a limited number of drinks, such as those commercially available from Bev Star, Inc. are well known.
Many conventional refrigerators are equipped with icemakers and water dispensers for dispensing ice and water. It is also known that refrigerators can be used to dispense other drinks. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,967 discloses a refrigerator with a drink dispenser assembly and a mechanism for selecting the dispensed drink. This system reduces the need for consumers to store drink containers in their refrigerators because this system uses a concentrated drink supply or syrup. However, a consumer using this type of system must keep track of the drink supply or syrup levels and the CO2 gas levels, must regularly purchase the drink supply or syrup and CO2 gas supply and must maintain and repair such dispensing systems. Such systems are also not readily adapted for dispensing a plurality of non-carbonated drinks, enabling the user to readily switch drinks or for facilitating delivery of drink supply and CO2 supply directly to the consumers based on the consumer's usage and the consumer's requests. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved in-home or residential carbonated and non-carbonated beverage distribution and dispensing system.